East Midlands Counties League
The Asterdale Sports Ground, Spondon
Tuesday, 20th April 2010, 7.45pm
Blenkinsopp Hits Three
A David Blenkinsopp hat-trick and goals from Adam Betteridge and Royce Turville kept Gresley's slim title hopes on track at The Asterdale Sports Ground.
Gresley needed to ensure that they won this game to keep up the pressure on Dunkirk who lie in second place and with a chance of overhauling long time leaders Bardon Hill Sports.
The visitors were soon putting lowly Graham Street Prims under pressure and took the lead after just 6 minutes. Brian Woodall flicked on a cross from the right and Adam Betteridge was on hand to head the ball home from close in.
Seconds later it was almost two when Blenkinsopp managed to shake off the attention of his marker but Prims keeper Darren Keeling made a good block with his legs to deny the striker.
Gresley did make it two on 13 minutes when Richard Butler's pass sliced the Prims back line open and put Blenkinsopp through and the frontman made no mistake beating Keeling with his shot.
It seemed just a matter of time before Gresley added further to Prims' misery and on 22 minutes it was Royce Turville's turn to score. A long ball beat a home defender and Turville latched onto it and slotted it past the keeper.
Just before the half hour it was four. A cross from the left from Adam Betteridge was met by Rob Spencer who pulled the ball back for Blenkinsopp who knocked the ball home.
As the first half drew to an end the visitors could have added further goals. First a lofted pass from Richard Butler found the head of Turville but his effort clattered the base of the far post and then Spencer fired a shot just over the bar.
Prims solitary attempt on goal came right on the half time whistle but Matt Collins could only put his effort over the bar.
If the travelling Gresley faithful were expecting another hat full of goals in the second half they were to be sadly disappointed because a combination of a hard and very bobbly pitch, taking the foot off the gas and a much improved showing by the home side reduced Gresley to just one more goal.
Blenkinsopp hit a tremendous effort on 55 minutes straight at keeper Keeling who did well to hold on to the ball despite being knocked off his feet by the ferocity if the shot.
Prims were seeing much more of the ball but all their effort was breaking down when they got into the final third.
It wasn't until the 70th minute that Gresley added to their tally. A home defender tried to jockey the ball over the bye line but some good harrying by Spencer proved successful and he came away with the ball and provided a superb pass for Blenkinsopp to smash into the roof of the net to complete a well taken hat-trick.
Ten minutes later Spencer was unlucky to see his header from a Woodall cross, come back off the woodwork.
The closest Prims came to getting on the score sheet came at the end of the game when Tom Bartram was put though on goal but with only Gresley keeper Gary Hateley to beat embarrassingly put his shot a couple of yards wide of the mark.
Manager's View
"I'm pleased with the result but obviously I'd have liked a few more goals given the goal difference situation.
"We have to respect the sides we play and it's not always easy. I thought in the second half Prims battled very, very well and it was against the wind as well and we've got no divine right to come and score a ruck of goals in the second half.
"We won the game in the first have and we played very, very well in a little spell and got our goals and we knew that second half it was going to be a bit more difficult especially against the wind. The guys in the Prims side have a lot of pride and they're not going to roll over for anybody.
"I'm more pleased with the clean sheet as it continues a decent run of form in terms of not giving too many goals away of late.
"That was the key thing I said to the lads at half time that we wanted as an absolute minimum to keep a clean sheet although we did get a little bit lucky when the guy went through and pulled his shot wide. He did look offside but having said that none of our back three were appealing so maybe he wasn't and that was their opportunity and it was the only one they had really in the ninety minutes.
"We are delighted with Adam Betteridge. When we were playing four at the back he struggled earlier in the season to get to the standard we wanted off him defensively. We fed him back a few things and he went away and played a lot of games for his University side when he was on the bench and out of the squad.
"When we changed the system we felt Adam is the sort of player who would ideally suit a wing back situation where he's got licence to push forward. He's got the energy and he's probably one of the fittest lads we have at the club and we've seen the benefit of that now and everything he does now comes off and he's done really well. He's got a couple of goals in his last couple of games and he's chipping in there. He's confident on the ball and has given us a great outlet and puts some good balls into the box.
"The pitch tonight was very, very bobbly, and given that I think he did very, very well for us so yes we are pleased with Adam and that is one of the plus points of the last few weeks.
"David Blenkinsopp is a quality player and he's eased himself into things. He's got a back problem that he couldn't quite shake off although he was sticking in the odd goal here and there. On Saturday he very nearly looked like his old self and for at least an hour tonight he was almost unplayable but the Prims guys did defend fairly well against him but he got his hat-trick tonight.
"We are delighted for him. I think he's had three doubles and it looked that tonight may be another double but he's managed to get his hat-trick and I think I think it was thoroughly deserved.
"If we'd have slipped up tonight and not won the game we'd have gifted the title to Dunkirk. It's a difficult situation anyway because they've probably got to lose two games in the remaining five given the goal difference as four points wouldn't be enough. Dunkirk have been like a machine this season grinding results out and we're going to be penalised for a couple of sloppy results potentially early in the season and a wobble in and around the FA vase Quarter Final. We lost the game before and I think we lost three of the four games away afterwards.
"It looks like, although we are still scrapping and if we can win our last four remaining games we'll be in with a shout but it looks like that wobble could cost us. We've got a long way to go and twelve points to play for.
"The situation we are in we are starting to experiment with one or two things. Jordi Gough in the middle of the park, Adam Betteridge left wing, Richard Butler middle of the park tonight - a great performance baring in mind that he's been on the bench for the last few weeks and his match fitness is not at the level he would want it to be, but he's shown tonight and put himself about and it's another option in there for us as well.
"I wanted to take the opportunity to rest Gareth Langford tonight because he's done very well for us in the last few weeks and he's had a few Sunday games. It's difficult as I would like the lads not to play Sundays but with them not being contracted and playing at the level we're at it's difficult.
"Gareth has been carrying a hamstring but he got through his final on Sunday okay but we felt it was an opportunity to rest him tonight. Towards the end we were going to put him on if anyone had an injury. Tom Land got a bang on the hip with about five minutes to go and that will stiffen up tomorrow no doubt so we'll have to assess that ahead of the weekend and fingers crossed he'll be okay for Satruday.
"We got two tough games next. A few weeks ago when I looked at the run in I picked out Greenwood away and the two Heanor games as being particularly tough.
"We are into those now and we've got to go away to Greenwood and put in a good performance, a battling performance because they've been around the top places all season so we've got to work hard for anything we might get over in Nottingham. Then I'm looking forward to the return of the Heanor game because for a nil-nil I thought it was very good value for anyone who paid to watch that game.
"Hopefully, it will be another entertaining game. Heanor are going to make it hard for us; they are a decent side and we'll be up for that because it will be our penultimate home game and our last midweek home game so hopefully we can get a good performance and see if it's good enough to get three points in both games."
